Scandinavian Film Festival 2023

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The Scandinavian Film Festival is back, complete with recent award winners exquisite dramas, and thrillers for Scandi noir lovers, not to mention a collection of cult classics. Get out of the cold and find yourself in the cinema on dates and states as listed below. See here for the Festival program and here for the FAQs. Get your tickets early so as not to be disappointed, especially for the very popular Opening Night and Closing Night events. If you're a super fan of the films and plan on seeing up to 10 films, save yourself a bit by getting in early for an exclusive pre-sale ETicket Bundle offer. Take note that the sale ends on 20 July 2023. T&Cs apply. Group Bookings is another way to save if you have groups of 20 or more, so gather your family and friends and plan a fun night out together the see Festival films at a more affordable price.

Your Opening Night event includes a pre-film reception with Nordic flavours and a choice of Scandi-licious cocktail or lingonberry mocktail before the Australian Premiere of Let The River Flow . It's based on true events that inspired a generation of young Norwegians. It's the summer of 1979 and a recently graduated 23-year-old schoolteacher Ester unintentionally gets drawn into a protest against a dam that may flood indigenous Sami land. A Sami herself, the native people of Scandinavia, she's ashamed of her heritage and conceals her ethnicity to fit in. However, when her very identity and culture are being challenged, she is stirred to act, but not without placing herself and her loved ones at risk. This is a moving story of finding one's voice.


Your Closing Night film Let The Right One In is a horror drama from Sweden. It's a subversive romantic horror that haunts with atmospheric cinematography, coupled with subdued yet powerful performances. It explores themes of friendship, love, loneliness and the darker side of human nature. It's a skilful combination of elements of horror, romance and a classic coming-of-age story. It's set in the early 1980s in a suburb of Stockholm. Oskar is a 12-year-old boy who is frequently bullied at school. One night, he meets a peculiar girl named Eli who moves into the apartment next door, and the bond that forms changes their lives forever. Let's just say it has a unique take on the vampire genre, without ever actually uttering the V-Word in the film.

The Centrepiece film Godland is a historical drama that comes with a glass of sparkling wine before the screening. A Danish priest goes on a pilgrimage across a largely unexplored Iceland in the late 1800s. With a translator and a guide, he journeys across the spectacular and dangerous terrain littered with glaciers and rivers. However, the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, mission and morality, with unexpected and shocking repercussions. The other special event at the Festival is Fallen Leaves - a new comedic romance between two lost souls who meet by chance in the Helsinki night. She works at a supermarket for low pay, and he's a metalworker in a job so hazardous, he drinks through the day and night to cope. This is a film that shows off Director Aki Kaurismäki's unrivalled mastery for depicting down-on-their-luck characters in all their complexities, while finding humour in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Unfortunately, this film is not screening in Perth.


For those of you who want to take a deep dive into the dark side of Scandinavian Cinema, you must check out Scandi Screams which has a selection of six films that examines the mysterious folklore traditions and mythology that have influenced and inspired filmmaker to shape an evolving genre over the last 15 years. It naturally includes the aforementioned Let The Right One In', which is accompanied by Border - when a customs officer becomes attracted to a mysterious man; Midsommar - a cult classic about a group of friends who participate in a seemingly innocent midsummer festival; Rare Exports - coz Santa Claus is coming to town in this inventive dark fantasy; Troll Hunter - an adventurous fusion of folklore and fantasy; and last but not least, the wonderful Mads Mikkelsen in Valhalla Rising - a subversive Viking epic who escapes his captors and joins a group of Crusaders on their quest to the Holy Land.

Presented by Palace Cinemas , be sure to comb through the program for a lineup of little gems that showcases the most exciting dramas, comedies and crime thrillers from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. Enjoy a host of Australian premieres and high-calibre and award-winning Scandinavian cinema on Palace Cinema screens nationally.



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Byron Bay - !date 20/07/2023 -- 09/08/2023
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Images - Scandinavian Film Festival 2023
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